City planners have backed a project to extend Oasis Church in Edgbaston (Image: Pic: Google Street View)

An extension to an Edgbaston church which specialises in services for asylum seekers has been given the go ahead by city planners despite objections.

Residents in Lee Crescent had complained the Oasis Church was operating as drop-in centre for asylum seekers without permission.

They were also backed by local councillors over claims the extension and resulting extra worshippers would add to dire parking problems in the road at peak times.

Neighbour Jim McAvan said the the church was also out of keeping for the Edgbaston conservation area.

He told a meeting of the city council's planning committee: "Oasis is an anomaly. An idiosyncratic design and made with poor materials. It sticks out like a sore thumb."

He claimed the church had been taken on by the UK Border Agency, something for which it did not have permission.

But Pastor Robert Hooper rejected the claim, saying it was primarily a church and not funded by the Border Agency although they did work with them to support people.

He said: "We are a Christian church. When asylum seekers come to our church services, their lives are changed. We offer mending of lives and direction."

Council officers said they thought the plan should go ahead as it was a "relatively modest extension".

Planning committee members were concerned about the traffic and parking problems at peak times, particularly during busy church services, but were told some extra parking spaces would be provided at the church.

Coun Gareth Moore (Con Erdington) said: "If too many people show up, the church is not going to turn them away."

But the majority supported the church and the extension was approved by seven votes to four at today's meeting.